Quotes

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.” Margaret Mead

“I have a respect for manners as such, they are a way of dealing with people you don't agree with or like.” Margaret Mead

“I must admit that I personally measure success in terms of the contributions an individual makes to her or his fellow human beings.” Margaret Mead

“What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” Margaret Mead

“We won't have a society if we destroy the environment.” Margaret Mead

“We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.” Margaret Mead

“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.” Margaret Mead

“Fathers are biological necessities, but social accidents.” Margaret Mead

“I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce.” Margaret Mead

“Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire.” Margaret Mead

“For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders.” Margaret Mead

“Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation.” Margaret Mead

“And when our baby stirs and struggles to be born it compels humility: what we began is now its own.” Margaret Mead

“Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.” Margaret Mead

“The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.” Margaret Mead

“Our humanity rests upon a series of learned behaviors, woven together into patterns that are infinitely fragile and never directly inherited.” Margaret Mead

“Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.” Margaret Mead

“Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.” Margaret Mead

“I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.” Margaret Mead

“It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.” Margaret Mead

“It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.” Margaret Mead

“Thanks to television, for the first time the young are seeing history made before it is censored by their elders.” Margaret Mead

“Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate.” Margaret Mead

“Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.” Margaret Mead

“The way to do fieldwork is never to come up for air until it is all over.” Margaret Mead

“Life in the twentieth century is like a parachute jump: you have to get it right the first time.” Margaret Mead

“Man's role is uncertain, undefined, and perhaps unnecessary.” Margaret Mead

“Many societies have educated their male children on the simple device of teaching them not to be women.” Margaret Mead

“We have nowhere else to go... this is all we have.” Margaret Mead

“A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.” Margaret Mead